Of course Garry is starting his new project, cleaning out the collective barn today, he even took a couple photos this morning. He says it is going faster than he thought it would, they should finish it in two weeks. They removed some cement already today. Unfortunately, all the welding they did on the bucket fell apart when they started the heavy lifting, should have used better steel. It still works anyway. Garry has decided to bring a wagon over there everyday to put the old metal they find in the barn and bring it home, so it doesn't disappear overnight.
Our original little barn is getting pretty full, more than 70 cows, heifers and calves inside now. Garry put the bigger heifers outside for the day last week. The milking ladies blame all illnesses (including mastitis) on breezes or drafts, so they keep things shut up tight. Garry says he has only treated one heifer for pneumonia this month (which is caused by lack of fresh air) but the barn is pretty full, it will be good to have them outside more with spring coming. Still snow and mud outside, below freezing every night, so spring could come faster!
Here's Garry helping Victor sell milk on a Thursday afternoon!
The cows are milking well, we are making about 600 liters of milk a day now, and have been selling it for more than 4 grivna a liter so far. Last year at this time we were getting paid 3.7 with the price dropping to 4.3 by the end of March, Garry is sure that the buyers will be asking for a price drop soon.
Right now our best milking cow is little Zera, the first heifer we bought in Ukraine, she calved for the second time in the fall and is really working hard. Garry told me that they dried off (stopped milking) four cows after the first of the month. The ladies weigh each cows milk on the first of the month and record it so we can estimate how much they give for their lactation. Two of the cows are going to have calves in the summer, they are getting a long vacation because they were only making three liters of milk a day now. Garry checked them and they are still pregnant. He also checked another one, because she is supposed to calve in six weeks but was still giving 17 liters of milk a day. Quite a lot for one of our little Ukrainian cows, which might mean she had lost the calf, but all is well, and she will be taking the normal dry cow dry period.
The hutches that Garry built last summer have had three bull calves Maxim is raising to pay for his wedding - or maybe they will be eaten at the dinner, I'm not sure which! Maxim insulated the top, and they have been there since December, and have no place to move to, so the heifer calves ended up being raised inside the barn like last winter. They are growing really well on whole corn (and a little protein I think) Max and Andrei shell off cobs.
If you are wondering the cats- Mooska and her kittens from last spring- are happy outside, here are a couple sunning themselves in the machine shed this morning. I saw Mooska in the barn last week, looking fat and happy- I am not sure what the ladies feed her, she is much fatter since moving out of our house!
The kittens are nearly as big as Box and have been weaned for a couple weeks, they may move outside soon. Hopefully no one let's Box out until she gets a trip to a vet in the city to get fixed. It will be less crazy in here.
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